Home Pickled Rhubarb!

Since getting back into making my own vinegar, I’ve also gone pickling mad, so when Carole, good-life-living chum otherwise known as friend-with-a-vegetable-patch turned up with a big bag of homegrown goodies, as well as the obvious crumble baking, I decided to try making pickled rhubarb.  I’ve never had it before so had no idea what it would be like so I noodled through lots of blogs and cookery books to see what recipes were around.  I found plenty but none of them cooked the rhubarb at all or even the spices so I decided to experiment which is why I’m writing it up here.  I can report that this recipe for pickled rhubarb certainly works for a really tasty albeit tart pickle – I’ve yet to decide how I’ll use it but I imagine it will be really good with a plate of cold meats and cheese.

There was a solitary leek amongst a huge bunch of rhubarb so tomorrow I’m thinking of doing a fine sliced blended pickle of leek and rhubarb – I fear the house will stink of vinegar for the next week!

You will need a large sterilised jam jar or similar – I used a Douwe Egberts coffee jar which I had just put through the dishwasher.

Ingredients:

3 stalks of rhubarb, cut into one inch sticks

400ml white wine vinegar

50ml white wine (probably 450ml of vinegar would do but I only had 400ml to work with!)

1 inch, peeled galangal

2 sticks of cinnamon

4 star anise

1 heaped teaspoon red chilli flakes

16 dried juniper berries

1 tablespoon pickling spices

1 pinch salt

2 tablespoons sugar

Method:

1.  Put the vinegar and all the other ingredients except the rhubarb into a non-acid reactive saucepan and gently bring to the boil.  I used an enamel jug pan as it makes it easy to pour.

2.  Reduce to a slow simmer so that the vinegar really starts to take on the flavour of the pickling spices for about 3 minutes.

3.  Add the rhubarb and bring back to the boil, reduce back to a simmer and cook for no more than a minute.

4.  Transfer to a jar, seal and leave to cool and steep for 24 hours.